An Old Testament God?

I was preparing for our study of Islam, which I'll be leading tomorrow.  We're using Adam Hamilton's Christianity and World Religions (Abingdon) as our foundation (has video and leaders guide).  My point is not to talk about the series, but to raise a point (Hamilton is a centrist United Methodist in theology).

Hamilton does something -- something I hear Christians do fairly regularly -- and that is distinguish between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament (of Jesus).  In his discussion of Islam, which is really quite fair when it focuses on the teachings of Islam, he suggests that the Muslim view of God is a step backward toward the God of the Old Testament.  That is, the Old Testament portrayal of God is one that, unlike the NT, is more violent and less loving.  He uses God's command to Elijah to slaughter the priests of Baal.  Jesus doesn't do this (though Hamilton and many other Christians forget about what happens in the Book of Revelation). 

The problem here is one that has plagued Christians almost from the beginning.  We want to see ourselves improving upon Judaism.  We may not go as far as Marcion, who suggested that the Creator God was a "demiurge," a lesser God than the God of Jesus, who is the God of love.  Marcion went so far as to create a truncated canon of Scripture that would support his claims.  

But what are we who are Christians saying when we say that the God of the OT is a more violent God than the God of the NT?  Obviously there is doctrinal development in the OT and the NT.  Both testaments come out of particular contexts, but is the Christian understanding of God better than that of Judaism?  And is Muhammad's view a step backward to a Jewish view?   Or, would it not be best to say that all three religions give different perspectives on God, some more violent and some more peaceful? 

I end with this word from Disciple theologian Clark Williamson:

In their post-Shoah teaching documents, the churches affirm that the God whom Christians worship is the living God of the Bible, the God of Israel, worshiped by Jews.  They assert that Christians have come and still come to know this God in Jesus Christ -- that in, through, and by means of Jesus Christ Christians are again and again confronted with the promise and command of the God of Israel.  That the God of Israel was incarnate in Jesus Christ, the Jew from Nazareth, is a claim that further makes it clear that the God of Israel "is not an isolated God without relationships, but a God who turns toward humankind and who is affected by human destiny."  God, who dwells not only in transcendence but in the midst of God's people is subject to distress and persecution "as Lord, Father, Companion and Redeemer." The covenantally related God of Israel, whose covenant love (hesed) involves God in interacting with all God's creatures and particularly with God's people, is here asserted against the church's tradition of construing God as in all respects unrelated to and unaffected by events in the world.  (Williamson, A Guest in the House of Israel, p. 202)

The quote is to a German Roman Catholic document from 1979.  Clark Williamson asserts that the God of Jesus is the God of Israel?  If Jesus is understood as the incarnation of that God revealed in our Old Testament, how can we make such a distinction between the God of the OT and the God of the NT?

The Character of Our Discontent -- Review Redux

THE CHARACTER OF OUR DISCONTENT: Old Testament Portraits for Contemporary Times. By Allan R. Bevere. Gonzalez, FL: Energion Publications, 2010.  ix + 111 pages.

It is safe to say that most preachers focus on the New Testament. The gospels are popular, but the Pauline epistles are probably even more popular, especially for those preachers with a penchant for doctrinal preaching. There is an obvious reason for this – the New Testament defines and describes the foundations of the Christian faith. This is especially true for faith communities that like to describe themselves as advocates of a “New Testament Christianity.” And yet, the Bible that those first “New Testament Christians” used was the Hebrew Bible (even if many used the Greek translations). Thus, it could be said that the earliest Christian preachers, including both Jesus and Paul made regular use of the Hebrew Bible in their sermons.

Into the breach steps Allan Bevere, a United Methodist pastor with advanced training in the New Testament – having studied at the University of Durham with James D. G. Dunn, who seeks to offer the preacher encouragement to engage with the Old Testament. Bevere, admits that he shares the preacher’s aversion to taking up the Old Testament, but with this book of sermons he seeks to remedy the situation. With nineteen sermons, he seeks to offer guidance and encouragement to other preachers.

The author is well equipped to handle and struggle with the biblical text. In an age of specialization, he might not be an Old Testament scholar, but the work done studying one set of scriptures gives him the proper tools to handle the other. As one whose academic specialization is 18th century Anglicanism, the gap between my specialization and the Old Testament is far greater than his. Preachers, however, are not limited by specialization – they’re called to handle the full canon along with the traditions of the church.

The Character of Our Discontent consists of nineteen sermons preached on texts drawn from the Old Testament, with a focus on the way Old Testament characters lived their faith. The sermons begin with Abraham and continue on through Ezekiel. Most, though not all, of these characters offer positive role models – the two most obvious negative figures are Samson and Saul. Among these characters, the lone woman who figures into the picture is Esther, who represents faithfulness to God in difficult circumstances.

The key words in this series of sermons are character and discontent. Even the best of persons, including Abraham and Moses, do not always live up to the standards that God has set before us. We are, Bevere writes, “discontented because we lack, and often we are not sure what we lack nor where to find what we truly need.” Indeed, we may not even be sure about what it is that we seem to be lacking, but we know that something is missing. When it comes to character, perfection comes not instantaneously, but over time, and this process is not easy (pp. 1-2).

There was a day when preachers regularly published sermons, but except for online options, there are few books of sermons available. Where once sermons were considered an important form of literature, that is no longer true. We’ve become a much more oral and visual culture, so reading sermons lacks the dynamics of the spoken word. One wonders, as one reads the sermons, how they would sound as they are delivered from the pulpit. We lack the sense of gravity and dynamism in mere written words. That being said, reading sermons can be of help – if a publisher is willing to take the risk to make them available – both to the preacher and to the person seeking to grow in faith, and thus the book has two very different audiences. For this we can be thankful to the small independent publisher that sees its business as a ministry.

Reading the sermons, one can get a sense of Bevere’s theological disposition. He’s Methodist, but of a more conservative/evangelical variety. The interpretations, applications, along with the commentaries and other resources consulted point in that direction. Indeed, it becomes rather clear when he quotes from C. S. Lewis’s famous dictum that Jesus could not be a mere mortal man considering what he claimed for himself – “Lord, Liar, or Lunatic.” At the same time, the exegesis and interpretative efforts are solid, as one would expect of one with advanced training.  Of course, in the context of these sermons, Bevere focuses his attention on the biblical story and  on not the critical questions that are inherent in the text.  Ultimately, the focus is on character and one's relationship with God. 

This book of sermons makes for a good, quick, and fruitful read. That is true in large part because, as one would expect in a book of sermons that have been delivered orally, they aren’t overly technical. The language is appropriate for a literate but lay audience. And whether or not you agree with the interpretation of one text or another, you will find something of value here.

 

Note:  This review was originally posted in April and was based upon an advanced Reader copy.  The book is now available from Energion Publications (http://energionpubs.com), for whom I myself have two books in process. 

The Character of Our Discontent -- A Review

THE CHARACTER OF OUR DISCONTENT: Old Testament Portraits for Contemporary Times. By Allan R. Bevere. Gonzalez, FL: Energion Publications, 2010.  viii + 111 pages.

It is safe to say that most preachers focus on the New Testament. The gospels are popular, but the Pauline epistles are probably even more popular, especially for those preachers with a penchant for doctrinal preaching. There is an obvious reason for this – the New Testament defines and describes the foundations of the Christian faith. This is especially true for faith communities that like to describe themselves as advocates of a “New Testament Christianity.” And yet, the Bible that those first “New Testament Christians” used was the Hebrew Bible (even if many used the Greek translations). Thus, it could be said that the earliest Christian preachers, including both Jesus and Paul made regular use of the Hebrew Bible in their sermons.

Into the breach steps Allan Bevere, a United Methodist pastor with advanced training in the New Testament – having studied at the University of Durham with James D. G. Dunn, who seeks to offer the preacher encouragement to engage with the Old Testament. Bevere, admits that he shares the preacher’s aversion to taking up the Old Testament, but with this book of sermons he seeks to remedy the situation. With nineteen sermons, he seeks to offer guidance and encouragement to other preachers.

The author is well equipped to handle and struggle with the biblical text. In an age of specialization, he might not be an Old Testament scholar, but the work done studying one set of scriptures gives him the proper tools to handle the other. As one whose academic specialization is 18th century Anglicanism, the gap between my specialization and the Old Testament is far greater than his. Preachers, however, are not limited by specialization – they’re called to handle the full canon along with the traditions of the church.

The Character of Our Discontent consists of nineteen sermons preached on texts drawn from the Old Testament, whicht focus on the way Old Testament characters lived their faith. The sermons begin with Abraham and continue on through Ezekiel. Most, though not all, of these characters offer positive role models – the two most obvious negative figures are Samson and Saul. Among these characters, the lone woman who figures into the picture is Esther, who represents faithfulness to God in difficult circumstances.

The key words in this series of sermons are character and discontent. Even the best of persons, including Abraham and Moses, do not always live up to the standards that God has set before us. We are, Bevere writes, “discontented because we lack, and often we are not sure what we lack nor where to find what we truly need.” Indeed, we may not even be sure about what it is that we seem to be lacking, but we know that something is missing. When it comes to character, perfection comes not instantaneously, but over time, and this process is not easy (pp. 1-2).

There was a day when preachers regularly published sermons, but except for online options, there are few books of sermons available. Where once sermons were considered an important form of literature, that is no longer true. We’ve become a much more oral and visual culture, so reading sermons lacks the dynamics of the spoken word. One wonders, as one reads the sermons, how they would sound as they are delivered from the pulpit. We lack the sense of gravity and dynamism in mere written words. That being said, reading sermons can be of help – if a publisher is willing to take the risk to make them available – both to the preacher and to the person seeking to grow in faith, and thus the book has two very different audiences. For this we can be thankful to the small independent publisher that sees its business as a ministry.

Reading the sermons, one can get a sense of Bevere’s theological disposition. He’s Methodist, but of a more conservative/evangelical variety. The interpretations, applications, along with the commentaries and other resources consulted point in that direction. Indeed, it becomes rather clear when he quotes from C. S. Lewis’s famous dictum that Jesus could not be a mere mortal man considering what he claimed for himself – “Lord, Liar, or Lunatic.” At the same time, the exegesis and interpretative efforts are solid, as one would expect of one with advanced training.  Of course, in the context of these sermons, Bevere focuses his attention on the biblical story and  on not the critical questions that are inherent in the text.  Ultimately, the focus is on character and one's relationship with God. 

This book of sermons makes for a good, quick, and fruitful read. That is true in large part because, as one would expect in a book of sermons that have been delivered orally, they aren’t overly technical. The language is appropriate for a literate but lay audience. And whether or not you agree with the interpretation of one text or another, you will find something of value here.

 

As a final note, it needs to be said that the copy used for this review was an “Advanced Reader Copy.” The book has yet to be released, but will be available soon at Energion Publications (http://energionpubs.com).

Surrender Like Christ

Today is Palm Sunday, celebrating the triumphant entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem to begin the pentultimate week of his life which would end in the most important event in human history. As Christ willingly surrendered himself for our sake, we should follow his lead. Our inspiration can be found right in the Bible, in Proverbs 16.

It is the Old Testament's Book of Proverbs chapter 16 where we learn to "entrust your works to the Lord, and your plans will succeed." This important chapter of God's own book of wisdom is full of lessons and inspirational sayings that guide us to surrender our lives to the Lord.

We all make plans and set our lives on a course. But no matter how well-meaning or well planned that personal direction might be, you will not find ultimate success without the blessings and guidance of the Lord. You must not only make your plans, but your plans must include yielding to God's ultimate plan for you.

"In his mind a man plans his course, but the Lord directs his steps" says Proverbs 16. "Happy is he who trusts in the Lord." Make your plans, they are necessary. But just as necessary is to both pray on your plans and to include in your prayers to God an acknowledgement that He might have another direction for you. Make your plea that His will be done.

By acknowledging to God that you are at His mercy and will succeed only with His grace and blessings, you humble yourself appropriately and place your ultimate fate in His hands. "All the ways of a man may be pure in his own eyes, but it is the Lord who proves the spirit."

Proverbs 16 gives advice for avoiding the influence of negative or evil people who will try to distract you from good in lessons such as "A scoundrel is a furnace of evil, and on his lips there is scorching fire" and "He who winks his eye is plotting trickery; he who compresses his lips has mischief ready."

The book urges one to speak only truth and to bring positive messages to the lives of others with sayings such as "Pleasing words are a honeycomb, sweet to the taste and healthful to the body." And yet we must do more than talk the sweet talk. Like Christ, we must be willing to walk the hard walk and surrender to God's will for us.

"How much better to acquire wisdom than gold!" sparks the book. "To acquire understanding is more desirable than silver." We want to succeed, and we often measure that success by money, goods, and power. This is not how God sees, or will measure, your success.

Like Jesus Christ, as you plan and train and work towards your worldly goals, remember that you need to ask for God's help and blessing. You need to be willing and open to His possibly having a different direction in mind for you. And you need, as Proverbs 16 and other books of the Bible can teach you when regularly and reverently, to recognize that worldly success is not your ultimate or most important goal.

NOTE: this entry is the continuation of the regular 'Sunday Sermon' series which can be found here most Sundays, all entries for which you can view by clicking on the below label from the www.mattveasey.com website

Time, Talent, and Treasure

This morning for the first time I processed up the main aisle and on to the altar, and then stepped up to the lectern in front of my fellow parishioners at the 7:30am Mass at St. Christopher's Church in Somerton to present the first reading from the Old Testament.

The selection was from the 1st book of Samuel, one of the 'Historical Books', and told the story of how a barren woman named Hannah prayed to God for a son and promised that if the Lord so gifted her she would turn the child over to the priesthood. God granted her desire, and she kept to her promise after weaning Samuel as a small child.

God had given Hannah a gift, and Hannah responded in kind by sharing her gift with the Lord. It was this very gifting process that led me to the lectern on Sunday morning through a 'Stewardship' program beginning to spread through the Catholic church and other Christian denominations as well.

Stewardship is the process of realizing that all that we have and all that we are is a gift from God. This makes us 'stewards' of these gifts in that we manage them on behalf of the Lord during our time here on earth.

In managing these gifts we are not only encouraged but are expected to share them with the body of the Church. In evaluating exactly how each of us can best share our gifts we should examine in our own lives the opportunities that we all have to give of our time, our talents, and our treasure.

The first opportunity, to give of our time, can take on many forms. The very least amount of time that we should be giving is that 1 hour each week to attend Mass. The normal 7-day week consists of 168 hours. God only asks that you come to His house for one of those. The very least you can do is give Him that hour and keep holy the Sabbath.

Of course what we are really talking about in Stewardship is giving more than the minimum. So more than the minimum of your time might involve some other activity on behalf of the Church. You could volunteer to help clean the church building prior to Christmas or Easter. Every parish or church community has volunteer opportunities ranging from smaller commitments to larger ones.

Another way to increase your Stewardship would be to share your talent. For some that might be a physical gift. Perhaps you are good with carpentry or plumbing and could volunteer to help your church in those areas. I am a police officer and a teacher with a great deal of public speaking experience, thus my decision to become involved in sharing that talent as a lector.

Not everyone is cut out to be a lector. Many people have a fear of speaking in front of large crowds, or just simply are not very good readers, or both. Neither of those has ever been a problem for me. But where tools are concerned, I'm lucky that I can even screw in a light bulb. Every one of us has some type of talent or career experience that we can share. Again, your individual church will have opportunities available for you to help.

Finally, you can share your treasure. This means exactly what it sounds like it means - money. You can do this through direct giving, increasing even slightly the amount that you place in a church envelope or collection, for instance. It could also mean bequething property or valuables to the church on your passing.

There are many skeptics when it comes to giving money or valuables to what they perceive to be an entity as large as the Catholic Church. Keep in mind that every individual parish runs largely on it's own resources. Your directed gift or increased contributions will go directly to help the church that services your very own communities spiritual needs.

You don't have to do anything. You can just keep going along the way that you are right now. Many Catholics and other Christians, and members of other faith systems, have drifted away from church almost entirely. Many Christians joke of becoming 'Chreasters', where they attend services only on Christmas and Easter. Others say things flippantly such as "I'm good with God, me and Him talk directly to one another."

Jesus turned to Peter and told him that he would be the rock upon which "I will build my church, which will overcome all the evil forces arrayed against it." Jesus also taught that "Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." In these specific but in many other example of his teachings and his living he showed the importance of gathering as a church community.

Personally, I have decided to begin with the small steps of volunteering with my church Lector Society to do the readings at Mass. My wife and I have decided to slightly increase our Sunday collection offerings. I am going to begin to look for other opportunities, and we will continue to build our own stewardship role with our church over time.

God calls each of us to the role of Stewardship, the sharing of those gifts which He has given to us in this life. It is up to each one of us to more closely examine our lives and our abilities, to get in touch with our own church, and to find an opportunity to present and share those gifts of time, talent, and treasure in honor of the Lord.

NOTE: This is the final 'Sunday Sermon' entry of 2009, a regular series of which all previous entries can be read by clicking on to the label below this posting at www.mattveasey.com

The Substance and Evidence That is True Faith

What is faith? A direct answer has been provided for us in the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews. This one book of the Bible provides in its forty relatively short verses an exact meaning, and some definitive examples of this often misunderstood and often undervalued spiritual principle.

Hebrews begins with the definition, that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." But it does not leave us there with no direction as to where this quality originated, or with no practical examples that highlight the simple definition of faith.

It is the 'substance' of things hoped, their very essence or foundation. Without a solid foundation, a structure or a system, or a person, will crumble. Faith is the substance of every good thing that we wish for ourselves and those we love. With faith, the achievement of all our dreams and goals is made possible.

It is the 'evidence' of things not seen. We cannot 'see' the being of God. We cannot look into His eyes. His arms do not wrap around us in a hug that we can feel. But when we have faith, we are actually aware of His loving presence in our daily lives. During our best of good times, our most difficult periods of challenge, and during our most awful of tragedies we experience that we are never alone.

In the book of Hebrews we receive numerous examples of men and women who entrusted their faith in God and were rewarded. Noah in preparing the ark and its inhabitants while the sun shone. Abraham in his willingness to offer up his only son as a sacrifice in the belief that God would raise him or have a greater plan. Moses in choosing the truth of his Hebrew background over an adopted Roman one when confronted with a future filled with likely persecution.

Faith, it turns out, comes directly from God. "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." God created everything that is now, ever has been, and ever will be in existence. We can know this intellectually, without recourse to blind faith. Common sense in understanding visible and theoretical science points us to the signature of our Creator. Faith helps fill in the blanks and answer the questions.

God did not leave us photographs or video of his creation, but He did inspire our ancestors' words and visions to be left to us in the Bible. He did impart in us an intellect and critical thinking ability. And more importantly, He sent His Son to us to teach us directly. Jesus Christ let us know through His teaching that we "need only have faith as small as a grain of mustard seed, and we can say to a mountain "move from here to there", and it will move."

In Romans 10:17, Paul imparts to us that "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." This gives us practical instruction that we can gain and strengthen our faith by listening to God and the teaching of Jesus Christ, who emphasized this act of listening many times during his public ministry.

Read up on God's word, on Jesus' teachings. Perhaps just as importantly, listen to them. Go to church and hear His words spoken, His lessons taught, and share the experience with others. Remember what Jesus said, that "wherever two or more are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them." Your faith will be affirmed in His truth, the truth which truly shall set you free.

God Has His Ways of Getting a Nation's Attention

When Old Testament Israel strayed from following God, Yahweh had unique and painful ways of getting the Hebrews’ attention. His first line of attack was to send in His prophets—who were not the shiny, happy-clappy, cliché-spewing, aphorism-addicted mega church pastors who are more interested in hawking their books than bearding the priests of Baal.

No, the prophets were wrecking cranes to wayward Israel’s facades. They were imperfect, difficult dudes who called a spade a shovel for a perfect God. They didn’t give a crap who you were, who your mommy was, if you were the King or Pastor Whoop-Dee-Frickin’-Do. They were fiercely devoted to God and His ways. Janet Napolitano would call these truth-tellers “terror threats” because they loathed godless governments and butt-kissing priests and had no problem whatsoever letting those entities have it verbally.

Yep, if you were out of sorts with God because of practicing whacked stuff or preaching Oprah instead of Obadiah, you were about to be publically roasted via the prophets’ sizzling invectives.

Need a mental image? Imagine Rush, Beck, Coulter, Miller or O’Reilly on steroids.

This skewering, to be sure, was about as fun for the rebel recipients as watching Nancy Pelosi do an interpretive dance of “Riders on the Storm” (the extended version) would be for Simon Cowell.

A humiliating open rebuke, however, was a mere love tap when compared to an eternity of misery and the coming decades-long national butt kicking Israel was in line to receive should they remain contumacious.

The prophets’ messages were never complicated. These gruff and holy critters offered God’s people two choices: turn or . . . burn. If Israel obeyed, they’d be blessed. If they disobeyed, well . . . let’s just say things didn’t go that well for the next four decades.

You see, if Israel turned from their profane BS (belief systems) and back to God, Yahweh would chill and relent from the attention-grabbing calamities He was heatin’ up on heaven’s back burner. The prophet, unfortunately, was officially out of a job if the Hebrews went the repentant route. Yep, Amos had to go back to fig picking.

However, when Israel blew the prophets off by condemning the messenger, categorizing the message as hate speech, jailing the prophet(s) or, as in some cases, killing the prophetic salvo, God would in turn switch to plan B to get His insubordinate group’s good ear.

God, not the one to run out of advanced repentance techniques, would allow Israel’s economy to go to hell, plagues to ravage their land, nature to convulse, and enemies the ability to pulverize them.

Yep, unless I’m reading the Bible upside down, it seems that when the nation went astray from God’s law and wouldn’t listen to the prophets’ calls to repentance and instead vilified the saving voices, God allowed one (or more) of the four aforementioned hammers to pound them until Israel became all ears.

This is, at least to me, a plain prophetic pattern within the Scripture. The $64,000 question you gotta ask yourself is this: If there is a God, and if the Bible isn’t a bunch of fairy tales written by a stack of whack jobs, then does God still roll today like He did with Old Testament Israel as He interfaces with 21st century nations that spurn His values to His face?

I’m guessin’ God hasn’t had an extreme makeover and that He is the same yesterday, today and forever, which could mean in our current culture—where evil is good and good is evil—that we might be in line for grave negative sanctions because, apparently, America’s new favorite pastime is whizzing on that which is holy, just and good.

WRITTEN by Doug Giles for TownHall.com and published there on May 10th, 2009